Owen McDonnell

Irish actor Owen McDonnell distinguished himself early in his screen career with his turn as an all-too-human policeman on "Single-Handed" (RTE, 2007-2010) and continued to mine the vein of complex, emotionally-driven men in series like "An Bronntanas" (2014) and "Killing Eve" (BBC Three, 2016-). Born in Galway, Ireland, McDonnell honed his acting talents at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, which he then parlayed through numerous theater productions throughout Ireland and the United Kingdom. After making his screen debut in the 2013 British drama "Conspiracy of Silence," McDonnell earned his breakout role as an Irish policeman on "Single-Handed" (RTE, 2007-2010). His turn as Sergeant Jack Driscoll, a hard-living and troubled member of the Garda, or Irish police, won him critical praise and led to more work on UK television, including "Wild Decembers" (RTE One, 2010), a drama created by novelist Edna O'Brien, and a two-season run on the Sky network comedy "Mount Pleasant" (2011-17). In 2014, he appeared in "An Bronntanas" ("The Gift"), an Irish-language thriller about a rescue boat crew plagued by the discovering of an abandoned fishing boat containing millions of euros' worth of drugs. The five-episode series was cut down to a feature-length film, which became Ireland's submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards. The following year, McDonnell starred in "An Klondike" (aka "Dominion Creek," TG4, 2015), a period drama about a trio of 19th-century Irish brothers who come up against a ruthless town leader while searching for gold in Alaska. It, too, was cut to feature-length for submission for the Academy Award, but was not selected as Ireland's submission. In 2018, he appeared before American viewers - many of whom were seeing him for the first time - in "Killing Eve," a thriller about two women--one, a security operative, and the other, a trained killer--in pursuit of each other. The series was produced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge of "Fleabag" (BBC Three, 2016-).